Overview:
Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian professor of English literature who burst into world prominence as a media guru in the 1960s. Working with the ideas of Harold Innis, another Canadian communications expert, McLuhan popularized the idea that our technologies have a profound effect upon our lives, culture, and history.
Countering the commonly accepted attitude that the content of a message is more important than its form, McLuhan pointed out that the means of communication itself creates an impact, regardless of what is being said. He claimed, for example, that a story has different meanings depending upon whether it is related orally, written in a book, acted out on the stage, heard on radio, presented on film, viewed on television, or depicted in a comic book. Each of these media has its own inherent bias and language, or, to put that principle into its now popular form: "the medium is the message."
Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall McLuhan
by Douglas Coupland
Overview:
Marshall McLuhan was a Canadian professor of English literature who burst into world prominence as a media guru in the 1960s. Working with the ideas of Harold Innis, another Canadian communications expert, McLuhan popularized the idea that our technologies have a profound effect upon our lives, culture, and history.
Countering the commonly accepted attitude that the content of a message is more important than its form, McLuhan pointed out that the means of communication itself creates an impact, regardless of what is being said. He claimed, for example, that a story has different meanings depending upon whether it is related orally, written in a book, acted out on the stage, heard on radio, presented on film, viewed on television, or depicted in a comic book. Each of these media has its own inherent bias and language, or, to put that principle into its now popular form: "the medium is the message."